Changpeng Zhao, co-founder and chief executive officer of the world’s biggest crypto exchange Binance, said his company has opened 2,000 positions for hiring.

"Today, we are hiring for 2000 open positions for Binance," the CEO said in a tweet on Wednesday.

It was not easy saying no to Super bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did.Today, we are hiring for 2000 open positions for #Binance. pic.twitter.com/n24nrUik8O

Zhao thinks the crypto winter is a great time to increase investment in talent and acquisitions.

“We have a very healthy war chest, we in fact are expanding hiring right now," the Binance CEO said via video link at the Consensus 2022 conference, when asked about rival Coinbase Inc’s recent hiring freeze. His company is also “kicking into high gear in terms of M&A activity," he added.

Crypto firms like Coinbase, Gemini Trust Co and Rain Financial Inc have not been immune from this year’s selloff that has impacted both stock markets and digital-asset valuations, with the latter two slashing headcount by as much as 10%.

Zhao said Binance had been frugal and avoided big promotional spending like Super Bowl ads or acquiring the naming rights to sports venues. Competing exchanges have in recent times put their names on the Crypto.com Arena and FTX Arena, which host various NBA franchises and other events.

Coinbase also jumped on the Super Bowl bandwagon and has been a prominent sponsor across NBA games.

“During bull markets, everyone’s starting their own projects, everyone’s paying everyone ridiculous compensation," Zhao said in the Consensus interview. Now the market is more balanced, he added, and “if we are in a crypto winter, we will leverage that, we will use that to